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October 26, 2010

When my dear blogging friend CAROLA of Boxwood Cottage told me that she would like to receive garden themed items in our swap, I had lots of ideas immediately.

I sewed a shopping tote for her, using a seed package image that dear DAWN had provided a while ago.

Carola had mentioned that she could use a box to get all her seed packages sorted. So I took a cardboard box, painted it, added a vintage image of one of Carola’s favorite flowers - sweet peas and of course a little bit of lace. You know that I love using laces for my creations and so some went onto the tag and the greeting card as well :-).

I found this cute bird in a garden shop and made a little nest from old book pages and put it onto a lovely vintage pressed glass plate.

There is never only one bird in a garden, so I stamped a companion for the one above on a piece of a linen doily and sewed this heart.

This is the front of the heart. I added a chain, so that Carola can hang it in her living room window or somewhere else.

I also sent Carola some laces, tags and coffee filter roses. The roses are made from filters my dear friends JODIE, KAREN and MARIE had provided me with. Our German coffee filters are manufactured from a thicker paper, are differently shaped and therefore are not so comfortable to craft with.

Other things I had added to the package but had forgotten to take pictures of, were a vintage garden tool, a silver plated bowl and a silhouette postcard for Carola’s silhouette collection. When you hop over to her beautiful BLOG, you will see pictures of those items as well on her post about our wonderful swap.

Now you probably would like to know what sweet CAROLA had sent me and I won’t keep you in suspense. I had chosen the “French” theme one more time and Carola did a fabulous job creating French themed gifts for me, like this gorgeous soldered Eiffel Tower ornament. Please take a look at the so lovely wrapped package too!

Carola had not only created this beautiful paper weight and those large, pretty charms, but also found a lot of awesome things at the flea market for me. Isn’t the vintage soap box just beautiful? The wonderful metal findings and the doll leg are perfect for my stash of treasures.

Carola had also sent me these two pretty soldered charms and an enameled numbered tag. I love everything that has numbers on it except for invoices, lol.

I used the tag to make a necklace for my mannequin. As you can see here, she also wears Carola’s “Merci” charm as well as an Eiffel Tower charm my dear friend MARIE had surprised me with a while ago.

Carola also spoiled me with two beautiful bread boards and my favorite sewing notions: Wooden spools and a darning mushroom. Then there was this awesome antique window handle. I have never seen such a lovely one before. Right now it is displayed in the living room but I would like to use it for an assemblage one day.

We both love to decorate for Christmas and this gave Carola the idea to send me some pretty silver ornaments. They will be a great addition to the decoration for my favorite holiday.

Carola’s packaging was so gorgeous that I rewrapped everything and now display the packages on various places.

When ANNEKEover at lasizes art place had asked me if I would like to do a swap with her, I agreed without hesitation. Anneke loves laces as much as I do and creates lovely fabric wall hangings and all kinds of other wonderful items. We decided to swap a fabric bag und fill it up with our favorite kind of embellishment.

This is my bag for Ann and besides a lot of laces I also added some mother of pearl buttons, glass buttons and crocheted flowers for her to create with.

Here is the beautiful bag, Ann made for me and the lovely laces she had sent.

All 6 swaps I had participated in so far this year were just wonderful. I so enjoy having all the fantastic swap gifts displayed in our home. Looking at them always puts a big smile on my face and reminds me of the sweet friends who had created or bought them for me. Now I’m looking forward to the next two upcoming swaps :-). I know they will be as much fun.

About Me

Welcome to my blog! My name is Julia and I am very passionate about sewing, creating unique pieces with wonderful junk and decorating our home. I love to go treasure hunting to find vintage or industrial items for my creations and vignettes.